


it's out there in the woods, waiting

by jay_lmao



Category: Gravity Falls, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Gravity Falls - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Episode: s02e20 Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls, Post-Episode: s06e20 The Future, Steven Universe - Freeform, Steven Universe Future, summer job AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26717386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jay_lmao/pseuds/jay_lmao
Summary: Steven has only been working at the Mystery Shack for a month. Dipper and Mabel only just arrived for the summer. The chaotic parts of both their worlds end up colliding, bringing back old enemies in new ways.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

Steven hadn’t even been employed with the Mystery Shack for a full month. He’d known the twins for less than a week, given they’d only  _ just _ arrived for summer vacation, and now he was already putting all three of them into mortal peril.

It wasn’t as if he _meant_ to accidentally awaken a monster of epic proportions, he was just trying to do his job! He’d wandered into the deeper forest, setting up signs to redirect hikers and tourists, and… and… Well, something didn’t like that he slammed a wooden post into the ground. 

At the very least, Dipper and Mabel’s confused screaming wasn’t at Steven. Or maybe it was in reference to his driving habits.

The Dondai was not meant for halfway paved forest roads. Yet Steven had to make quick work of the wheel, weaving between the trees, sending the car careening on the edges of its wheels. It was a vehicle that already had been banged up. Only the stars knew how long it would hold up, and that wasn’t something he needed to consider right now.

A roar from behind shuddered the walls of the car. Steven tried not to think too much as a shadow crossed his windshield. This wasn’t his fault, he reminded himself. He didn’t have to fix everything, he just had to survive through this uninhabitable terrain.

“Hey.” Steven glanced up to the rearview mirror. Mabel had her nose pressed to the back window, Dipper had his between the pages of a heavy book, and neither of them had a seatbelt to be found. “Could you fill me in on what’s going on back there?”

Something stomped the ground with inhuman, sending the Dondai a good few inched into the air. “And fast!”

“Those are definitely gnomes,” was all Dipper could offer. Over the sputtering of the engine, there was the shuffle of pages being flipped. “Ugh, I didn’t have the time to make the same notes as Great Uncle Ford! Their weakness is leafblowers, but—”

There was a mechanical whir as one of the twins lowered the windows. Wind cut through the car like a knife, but Mabel could still be heard yelling, “I told you once before, I ain’t marrying you weirdos! Not even when you’ve got more than one diamond!”

_ Diamond.  _ Steven hadn’t told the twins that he was a gem. Or even his boss. But he wasn’t sure that his employment with Soos relied on his humanity, but the thought still had him shaking. And he had more important things to worry about right now. Just surviving, as feeble a concern as that was. All he needed to bother himself with was his most immediate concern.

He still held the wheel until its leather cinched beneath his grip.

“Steven,” Mabel called. The window hummed as the window tried to rise, but the mechanism got stuck halfway. “You’re going to want to take a hard left!”

A pencil was scratching old journal paper from behind as Dipper. “Well that’s new.”

Hard left. All he had to do was shift the wheel to the left, but there sort of was a tree sitting in the middle of that direction. Not again. He couldn’t crash the car again, not with someone else in his care, not when he was  _ this close to normality.  _ But he was feeling his face warming. A rosy glow encroached into the bottom of his vision, a contrast to the shadows deepening on his dashboard. Not again. He’d gone this long without a near-death experience, without at least  _ feeling  _ like he was going to die.

Even his therapist had said he was doing so, so well.

“Left, please!” Mabel reminded, albeit as politely as she could in absolute horror.

“You’ve got a few seconds,” Dipper added. Then his pencil stopped scrabbling through the margins of his journal, as he resolved to amend, “Actually left. Hard left, left! Turn left _right now!”_

Steven couldn’t afford to crash the car. But he couldn’t properly look behind him, and all he could see was the threat ahead of him… and… and…? He couldn’t think of anything next. There was just the tightness in his throat, the fear of reliving a crummy memory, and dragging others into it.

“Guys,” Steven pressed his forehead to the wheel until his temples started to pulse, unable to even look ahead of him, struggling to keep his voice low as he begged, “I’m just going to need a little more  _ time—” _

* * *

The whining of the engine slowed into a bassy grumble that hung in Steven’s ears, the wind like a feather against his skin. He’d sped up at some point. Glancing down to his hands, he found that the pink glow had returned to him. But he had sped up after not having enough time to even think, which meant he had time to sort this out, and hopefully not kill all of them. Okay. He could do this. A deep breath, and he managed to get himself to open the car door, step out, and assess the situation.

Whatever was chasing them could’ve been a gem monster, in a weird way. But he was sure that all of them had been healed, or at the very least, rounded up… Though Dipper had mentioned something about gnomes. As he came closer, though, he did notice that this beast seemed to have smaller components. Were they… tiny bearded men? It hardly helped that it looked as if they were littered with quartz gems;  _ not  _ Diamonds, despite Mabel’s comment, and much to Steven’s relief. Small gems scattered into their caps or embedded in an unfortunate limb.

Yet Gravity Falls was supposed to be some tourism town in the middle of nowhere.

His chest tightened again the minute he looked to the right of the car, seeing an uncomfortably sharp spear raised over the monster’s head. That was definitely a spear, not comprised of small men. With the tells of a gem light-mass construct, at that. Did this mean that these were new corruptions of gems or… why did this look like organic material?

Steven didn’t like the idea of stumbling into yet another town with secrets.

But at the very least, the twins were right about making a left. He made quick work of throwing open the back doors of the Dondai, taking the twins out by the backs of their vest and sweater respectively. He haphazardly left them in a clearing with some sort of stone statue—it was enough of a landmark. Then there was the matter of pushing the Dondai downhill. It got a little battered up on loose sticks and branches, but at least it didn’t smash directly into a tree.

Which meant everything was going well. Neither of the twins had more than an emotional bruise, and the Dondai had been spared from becoming the target of abuse again. But most importantly, the twins.

They were safe.

And the pink glow faded, and time quickened.

* * *

Steven was pretty sure he’d given himself a stress headache, and he pattered around the clearing, trying for breathing exercises until the monster faded from his mind. Until its footsteps disappeared into the deep forest from where it came. He would ask questions later, but for now, everything was alright. 

Though he did cringe a touch when he heard one of the twins grumbling.

“I think eating under-the-cushion gum on the bus ride here is finally getting to me.” At least Mabel was cognizant enough to speak. Steven turned around to find her leaning against the tree, rising to her feet.

Dipper followed suit, reassuring his hunting hat on his head. “What  _ happened?” _

Steven opened his mouth but… paused. He hadn’t told any of them he was a gem, and had just made a gaudy show of his powers right in front of them. Maybe now wasn’t the right time. Not after everyone was still reeling from brushing with death, and not when he rather liked the normality of a job in a sleepy town.

He pressed his lips together and stepped over. “Are you guys alright?”

“It’s not the worst I’ve done. Things that go on around here will change you, dude. And I’m the man who’s got you covered,” Dipper admitted, using one hand to hold up the journal he’d spent half the ride scribbling in, the other to knock on his collar bone.

Though he promptly coughed. “Nope, still have the wind knocked out of me.”

At least that got a small laugh out of Steven, a reminder of overexerting himself when younger. He turned to Mabel, picking a leaf out of her hair. “What about you? Everything alright over here?”

Though she wasn’t responsive outside of an idle nod. Any of that usual energy in her eyes faded, replaced by… perhaps confusion, or upset, or something of that sort. She was at least well enough to start towards the other side of the clearing. Towards the statue, the landmark that Steven had haphazardly acknowledged in his little stunt to survive the afternoon.

It was a flat, triangular figure that seemed to be sunk into the ground. The moss had reclaimed it, though this seemed to gray, rather than bloom in a way that Steven was familiar with. A single unblinking eye stared up at the heavens. One outstretched hand looked friendly, but with the cracks along the palm, it seemed as if one too many individuals had tried to for a handshake.

Rounding it all off was a dainty stone tophat. And like a feather in its cap, was the undeniable sight of a gem shard. It… it looked all too familiar. Like the sliver of a conscience separated from its kin. Like the fusion experiments.

Steven took a step away from the petrified figure.

Mabel stopped at his side, simply saying, “I thought he was dead.”

Something had happened here. The catalyst for the monsters trailing them, and Dipper’s journaling, and the way in which Mabel looked upon an inanimate statue with shock. Something was going to happen here again. And it left a sick feeling in his stomach, the reminder that nothing would be normal for him.

Though by the look Dipper and Mabel cast each other, nothing had been normal for them in quite a long time, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I know I'm probably a little late on the SU/GF crossover train, but this crossover has been a straight dose of sunshine for me, so I had to throw my hat into the ring.
> 
> The entire outline for this fic has already been written, but I cannot promise regular updates due to schoolwork taking priority. However, if you like what you see, drop a comment or a kudos and I'll try my best to follow through on the next chapters!


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel felt the car stumble into a spot besides the Shack, sputtering up smoke from all the wrong places after its beating, and then heard the clatter of keys as the engine was disengaged. Though she had the awkward feeling that something in Steven had been disengaged, too.

He muttered something halfway comprehensible about making his way to the time clock. Then he hauled himself out of the car and slammed the door behind him. An uncomfortable silence settled as his flip-flops rapped against the porch of the Shack, and even after the main door closed behind him. And it was still quiet.

Which was strange, since Dipper hadn’t stopped talking about the statue since they’d gotten back into the car. He left his journal hanging open on a page about gnomes that he had been swiftly modifying.

Dipper pointed over the dashboard with a pencil. “Don’t you think there’s something  _ off  _ about Steven, Mabel? He wasn’t here for any of last summer, and yet he freaked out at the statue.”

“Or maybe he’s just upset that he spent his afternoon getting chased after by some mutated monster!” Mabel argued, flinging her arms upward, slamming against the roof of the car.

There was another pause between the two. Dipper sighed, slamming the book closed. He tucked it under his arm and against is vest with one arm. The other slid open the car door as an unspoken concession, Dipper admitting that maybe he was taking this theorizing a little too seriously. Mabel followed after him.

There was a high squeal as they opened the porch door. Even though the main house hallway was the same as when they left, a certain chubby pig was squealing at the staircase, unable to stumble his way up.

Mabel reached over to haul up Waddles, asking rhetorical questions of what got him so riled up. Though an answer soon came in the form of overhead floorboards, creaking with age and applied weight. It only took one glance between the twins to make the decision to sprint upstairs.

Dust scattered as they ascended, this area not touched since last summer, barely having time to settle in. Cobwebs hadn’t even been eradicated by gompers. It seemed like if anyone was up here, they walked about with an infinite amount of care.

At the top of the stairs, the twins tried their bedroom door first, the lock stuck. Dipper furrowed his brow and— the door simply flung open. Just a fault of an old house with rusting parts. No sign that anyone else had been here, no one to fuss with half-unpacked suitcases marked with Californian luggage tags. Dipper closed the door behind them; even the hinges sounded unoiled.

Mabel set down Waddles on her bed, where he promptly made himself comfortable. She sat besides him and played with a fold in her skirt.

“I swear I heard something,” Dipper reiterated.

Mabel shrugged, trying to make the benefit of the doubt, trying to hope that no man with a jacket that pink could harbor ill will. “Probably just an old house, Dipper. Letters were falling off the roof  _ before  _ the portal downstairs started making everything all crazy.”

And for a moment, the discomfort between them was quelled. It was just an incident of the town being its usual weird. Just a result of a newcomer being tossed up, and a house that had seen too much wear and tear over the years. Maybe this was just one incident in a summer that would be peaceful after all.

Though when there was a stern knock on the door, the two couldn’t help seizing up. Dipper and Mabel pointed at each other and mouthed commands to open the door. Neither of them budged. Mabel broke out both hands to solve this dispute, starting to pound out a beat for rock-paper-scissors—

Until their visitor opened the door on their own.

“Hey dudes. Do either of you know how many twins it takes to screw in a lightbulb?”

Soos had been Mister Mystery for a year now, but admittedly, there was still something strange about seeing him in the fez and suit. Especially when he was hauling around his old toolkit. Though that didn’t stop Mabel or Dipper from running directly into him for a hug, which forced Soos to stumble a bit.

Though his thoughts stayed put. “Well, I mean, I guess the better question would be how many  _ sets  _ of twins. So I guess the answer is one, and you really only need…” A pause as he reciprocated the embrace, but pulled back and asked, “Why do you two have the distinct look of childhood terror on your faces?”

Dipper tried to hurriedly explain the Bill statue situation, its new addition, the fact that Steven had bolted so soon after. How the Dondai was busted up, and would need repairs. That there were monsters in the forest again. Though quite frankly, it wasn’t as if that were new information. Soos only nodded as wisely and sagely as he tended to. 

“I mean I can’t blame a hambone for deciding to take the rest of the day off for that.” Soos scratched the back of his head, glancing over his shoulder, as if visualizing the conversation behind him. “Walked straight past me, said he wasn’t feeling too good. Then the TV started acting up so I came up here to replace the bulb.”

“Shouldn’t Steven be fixing that, though?” Dipper asked. “I mean… if I have my facts straight, he  _ is  _ essentially your replacement.”

Something about that sounded similar to Mabel. The way that Steven was so quick to check in on everyone after the crash landing, how he wanted nothing but more time to think on a better solution. And here he was, a repairman. Maybe he was wandering off to fix something outside the Shack. Maybe to go back and finish his work in the woods…?

Something here wasn’t right. But not in the same way that Dipper thought.

Soos only shrugged in response to the question, offering the simple guidance of, “Once a handyman, always a handyman, dude—”

He was cut off as Mabel jumped up, grabbing Soos by the sides of his face. “Soos, did Steven say where he was going? This is for important detective purposes!”

“Well,” Soos reached up to adjust the fez. “Something about going into town.”

And the car was too uneven on its wheels for driving purposes. Which meant that Steven was still within chasing distance, which gave Mabel ample time to grab Dipper by the wrist and start stumbling downstairs, hollering up at Soos to watch after Waddles and make sure he didn’t eat luggage while they were gone.

Wherever this new handyman was headed off to, he needed to know about Bill.

* * *

The town square had certainly changed. Rubble had begun spilling out from the junkyard, which certainly put a sour face on some of the local residents. Mabel was fairly sure she saw one of the Northwests—still out of house from investing in Weirdmageddon, she assumed—skitter at a racoon jumping free of a trash pile.

As the twins came closer, though, the slips of yellow tagged to the items were coming closer into view. Sticky notes, actually. Dipper leaned over and took one in hand, still attached to some sort of motor.

“It says it’s an engine from a ninety-three model…” He squinted his eyes, leaning over as he tried to make out the tiny scrawl at the bottom “ _ ‘Great for scaring your coworkers when they refuse to acknowledge your retirement.’  _ Hundred-twenty-three bucks.”

Mabel made her way further towards the junkyard, more easily making out bits and pieces from last summer. She was fairly sure that there was at least an eye of the mechanical Gobblewonker laying in the street. Though who and why would be offering this garbage up for sale, especially after the Never Mind All That mandate…?

There was a twang of a banjo in the distance, from inside the yard gates.

“McGucket,” Dipper and Mabel declared in unison.

Though as the two began a sprint for the dump, dust kicked up under their heels, the banjo tune sounded less and less coherent. It wasn’t the competency and insanity of a man that knew how to operate robots with his beard. This was something more… unintentional. And Mabel was pretty sure she’d never heard McGucket sing, though she didn’t doubt he’d have the voice of an angel.

At the top of a junk pile was a silhouette, outlined in bright pink. Mabel sighed relief and planted a foot against a toaster as a foothold. She turned her head over her shoulder, gesturing Dipper to follow her.

He flinched. “Doesn’t that look non-OSHA complaint to you?”

“I think the fair at the Shack was any more safe,” Mabel chimed, then continued upwards.

If Dipper was making any attempt to climb up after, it was buried under the sound of metal shifting beneath her, some of her grips disintegrating upon contact. She could still hear singing towards the top of the makeshift mountain. For whatever reason the cacophony she’d kicked up went completely unnoticed—Steven jumped slightly as Mabel dropped into sitting at his side. His voice immediately hid back in his throat.

In his hands was a banjo, a neon yellow note still hanging from its neck.

“And you play music, too,” Mabel noted with a soft gasp. She rested a hand on his shoulder, simply saying, “A multi-talented handyman.”

“Yeah, I… multi-talented.” Steven swallowed awkwardly, a blush showing up on his face, a nervousness in his throat. That tinge across his cheeks was almost a little too pink. “I usually play ukulele, but I left it at home. Though someone was nice enough to sell me this banjo.”

“That would’ve been—” Dipper called from below. He grunted as he hauled himself the last few feet or so, then promptly took a seat on the other side of Steven, wiping grime off on his vest. “Old Man McGucket. He managed to erase all of his memories, then accidentally started a cult. But a cool guy.”

Steven just stared at Dipper with wide eyes, his mouth half-open with confusion.

An opportunity for explanation, Mabel decided, as she sat up straighter and pointed to the other side of town. She wasn’t quite sure when the water tower had been put back up. “Yeah, like I was trying to get my Grunkle over his fear of heights when a video game character came to life and nearly knocked that down!”

“I’m sorry… what?” Though it sounded less like confusion and more like a laugh.

“Or the time we tried to host a party and I managed to accidentally make like… twelve copies of myself. You don’t know how traumatizing it is to see yourself disintegrate, man,” Dipper added.

Something in Steven’s expression said otherwise. Though the words never came out of his mouth as confirmation, he just nodded, the corners of his mouth on the edge of an awkward smile. All he offered was a few sour notes off of a banjo that hadn’t been shown a new face in quite some time.

“Sorry about that, I just…” he sighed, an impromptu chord following his tone. “Not the best under stress these days. I trust you, though, don’t get me wrong. It has just been the longest day I’ve had in some time.”

Dipper rolled his eyes. “You should’ve been here last summer.”

Steven still relayed nothing, but the his eyes glazed over at the mention of a previous summer. It was almost as if he’d never had one. Or whatever one he once had was not fond, was not a typical break from school.

Mabel elbowed Dipper. “Which… well, you want to tell him about the statue?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ack! I'm sorry that it took me so long for a chapter two update ;__; unfortunately college assignments will take the wind out of you.
> 
> However, here it is! It's a bit of a slower chapter, admittedly, but I wanted to give some screen time to the twins, too, and give Steven some space before having to discuss the events of the last chapter. Chapter three hopefully shouldn't take such a long time, but that depends on how much finals end up taking the wind out of me @_@
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a kudos and a comment!


	3. Chapter 3

First the twins had taken him back into the forest, to discuss the statue. That this construct of stone and moss had once been a dream demon that terrorized their lives. That the entire town had been turned into a cacophony of distraught and surrealism. And though Steven himself had seen some less-than-human things in his day… he struggled to get it.

Or maybe he was still fixated on the gem shard in this Bill Cipher character’s hat.

At least this was the case until Dipper took out his journal, flipped to a random page, and then ran off in another direction. Mabel and Steven followed, promptly led to a small grove of towering crystals, where tiny deer were abundant and an oversized butterfly had taken up residence in the branches of a tree.

Size-changing properties, Mabel had explained. 

Except all Steven could recall was his little stint with Yellow Diamond. He still hadn’t told the twins anything about the gems, hadn’t shown any of his powers, but there was a small part of him that  _ wanted  _ to. A part that said that perhaps he wasn’t some alien hybrid that only could happen in a fairytale format. That somehow, these things were normal. 

And when Mabel dragged them all back to the Mystery shack—Steven hurried his apologies to Soos about leaving early, but then was taken upstairs—to present her scrapbook from the previous summer, a soft horror crossed Steven’s mind. The twins were still young. Thirteen on nearly fourteen if he had his facts straight, but between the pages coated in glitter and the ridiculous faces made for the camera…

Casual summer sundries were interspersed with photographic proof of the supernatural. One after the other, they seemed more and more scarring, and Steven couldn’t figure out how the twins joked about it with such resilience. Steven had the fractures in his skull to show just how great childhood misadventures had gone for him.

The hum in his head told him that his glow was coming back. So with a hurried excuse, he snatched Mabel’s scrapbook, slammed the cover down, greeted by a frilly cover that gave no hint of the eldritch horrors depicted inside.

“Dude,” Dipper muttered in the most accusatory way possible. 

Steven swallowed, pulling back and tucking his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He needed to get some sense of normalcy and find something to do with his hands. “I-I actually haven’t seen much of the town outside of the Shack. What do you guys do for fun around here?”

* * *

There was always something therapeutic about the windmills at a miniature golf course.

It was a good suggestion on the Pines’ part; it gave them something to talk about besides Weirdmageddon. Something that didn’t make Steven question his own place in this sleepy Oregon town. And it was an excuse to talk about Golf Quest Mini and, much to his horror, discover that the game cartridges had been long discontinued and he had likely given a collector’s edition to Amethyst.

So he had to settle for the windmill directly ahead of him. That was the course coming up, or so the marked flags at each hole suggested, though the twins looked at each other suspiciously.

“Fronds?” Mabel asked.

“I think we’d rather not.” Dipper just shook his head before consulting the tiny score sheet. “And if we’re playing by Piedmont rules, then you’ve got one swing left before you have to hand it to Mabel.”

Steven shrugged. “No one gets hurt if I don’t win.”

He took his swing as a light tap. The ball rolled downhill, made a curve around the hole and… missed. Part of him wanted to throw the club over his knee, but the more mature part said that this wasn’t a life or death scenario. He settled for a shrug and called up his score to Dipper before removing his ball from the green. 

Mabel tutted like a disappointed teacher, shaking her head as she set her own ball onto the tee. “Take it from a mini-champion, you’ve got to be a little more direct with your swing. Ask it out on a date. Take it by the hand and make it fill out a romance questionnaire—like  _ this!” _

With little warning, her putter was up and down in a smooth arc, flung over her head despite safety precautions. Yet she hit the ball. Then it kept rolling, down the pipeline that interrupted the green, and it kept going onto the lower level. It kept up until landing squarely in the hole. 

“I’m starting to rethink the windmill, Mabel.” Dipper scratched down the score. “Keep this up and you can finally beat your high score!”

“As if I’m dealing with the Lilliputtians and their stupidly cute tiny clogs again.” She waved her arm casually, vaguely referencing the windmill. “That thing can be converted into a sawmill, Dipper. A  _ sawmill.” _

“Wait, what?” Steven held his putter defensively across his chest, a replacement for his shield, desperately trying to stifle a summoning. Trying to stifle another rosy glow. “I… I’m hoping that’s just a pun.”

“Oh, it happened.” Dipper took a step off the green, jumping over a shallow river that separated the thematic sections. “We might’ve accidentally started a war here. Apparently the Eiffel Tower course has a major Napoleon complex.”

Mabel scratched the back of her head. “Though I’m pretty sure that they swore vengeance against us. By now they would’ve taken a bunch of tiny pencils against us… which is cute. Deadly, but cute.”

Steven knew well enough by now that these kids have seen worse, but he couldn’t help himself but take a step back. “I mean, if there’s another near-death adventure coming on, I think we should give it a rain check.”

“We should check,” Mabel muttered. She propped her hands on her hips, following after Dipper for the windmill. “Y’know, it  _ is  _ weird. I would have thought Fronds would have come by to stab us by now.”

And they kept going. Steven tried to focus on the arms of the mill, peaceful and cyclic and… oh geez, they were dead set on heading towards the course that had a price on their heads. It wasn’t his duty to look out for everyone and everything. But… there wouldn’t be any harm in at least supervising.

“Wait, guys,” he called.

Except they were already knocking on the windmill. The Pines turned to each other, appearing to be mumbling and nodding in some sort of twin code. No response came from behind the panel, which seemed relieving—up until Mabel raised her putter like a weapon. She angled herself opposite the door hinges while Dipper got ahold of the handle.

Stars, what were they planning on releasing? “Maybe we should—”

He came to a halt right at the front of the structure. Just at the same time that Dipper flung open the door, and all three of them were facing the inner workings of the windmill course. All the gears and piping… Steven paled at creatures living inside.

Almost humanoid, but not quite. Oversized heads dimpled like golf balls, and there may have been a tiny vest in the mix, but Steven was having trouble seeing it past the extra pair of limbs. A crest of antlers here. The barest fragment of a gem shard there, and… by the stars, was this some further corrupted version of the Heaven and Earth beetles?

Whatever they were angled their heads at the humans and the gem hybrid, clicking with some sort of anger. It was at that point that Dipper opted to slam the panel shut.

“That is  _ not  _ how I remember the Lilliputtians,” was all Mabel offered.

“At least it’s not the strangest thing we’ve seen in the past two summers.” Dipper blinked idly, somehow completely unaffected. “This town is weird, but something happened while we were gone.”

Indeed. Steven felt the blood flushing away from his limbs, thoughts numbing as he tried to recall everything that had happened during his brief time knowing the twins. The gnome monster—or so Dipper had begun to call it—was able to summon a gem weapon. There was a shard in the statue’s cap. Now whatever these little oddities were, Lilliputtians or however it was pronounced, seemed to mimic corruptions.

But he’d cured the corruptions. This was… this was like some sicker version of the gem fusion experiments. Except he couldn’t even figure that one out. He wasn’t sure if the strange creatures of this town counted as organic material, because gems couldn’t fuse with organic beings. Nothing besides Steven. But then he himself proved there was an exception, and he hated the idea of being something  _ monstrous— _

His breath hitched in the back of his throat. This was a gem problem, and it wasn’t supposed to be his to solve. The road trip that got him here was supposed to be an opportunity to be  _ human.  _ Steven needed to pass this off to someone who could handle this better than him. Someone who was supposed to handle it, preferably. How was he supposed to find another gem out here, though, when most of them barely went far beyond Little Homeschool on the other side of the country?

Steven pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling to think, struggling to hear the twins mutters of concern. These were either corruptions or fusions. He wasn’t going to assume corruption, because that meant facing the Diamonds again. Fusion was more of Garnet’s territory. Peridot, though, was more versed in unethical fusions. The forced variety. She might know something about this.

They’d once seen another fusion go sour, in a fight with Jasper. That was a corruption incident as well. And Peridot had been there, and… Steven snapped his eyes open, never having realized that he’d had them shut.

Of course! The Beta Kindergarten was on this side of the country. He could access a warp pad there, and make his way back to an actual gem with some knowledge of the situation, and he could pass off the issue to someone with more steady hands. Then he could have a normal summer like a normal human working a normal part-time job.

When Steven came to, he was on the tail end of hearing Dipper argue, “Even if we  _ hadn’t  _ destroyed that memory eraser, we’re not using it on someone we literally just met.”

“I… I’m not feeling too well, guys.” Steven turned around, stumbling off the course, for the gates of the complex. He’d be feeling better by the time he got into the Dondai, he was sure. “I think I’m just going to drive to get some air.”

A long drive. All the way until he found the Beta Kindergarten, and he kept all this gem nonsense away from the twins. They’d already seen enough in their time. Neither of them needed more chaos, and Steven certainly didn’t need any more.

He just had to get to the Beta Kindergarten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What, two updates within a month? I'm on a roll... and also possibly procrastinating on studying.
> 
> But yes, I had time for one update before my finals. Fortunately most of them were final projects, and are mostly out of the way. Figured I'd get back into the game with this one just to take a breather from academics -u-"
> 
> Thank you guys so much for all of your support, especially given the irregular and broad upload schedule! It means the world to have an audience that's so interactive.
> 
> I make original content as well, so if you'd like to see some of that, feel free to take a look over at https://inked-foundry.tumblr.com/
> 
> Have a good one, folks! Holiday season cometh soon!


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